GOP headliners hopscotch Virginia for McDonnell

A day after President Barack Obama rallied Democrats in Norfolk for gubernatorial nominee R. Creigh Deeds, national Republican headliners hopscotched Virginia for front-runner Bob McDonnell.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, a once and future presidential prospect, appeared with McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and attorney general hopeful Ken Cuccinelli, stopping in Henrico County to echo the campaign’s jobs-and-economy theme and help pad campaign coffers.

“We recognize that the reason you’re seeing governors, former and current governors, come here to support his team is because we recognize that if Virginia is doing well there’s a much better prospect that all of America will do well,“ Romney said.

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, another Republican presidential candidate in 2008, also blitzed Virginia for the GOP ticket.

Meanwhile, Deeds rolled out a two-minute video on his Web site recapping the Obama visit Tuesday and imploring volunteers to join the get-out-the-vote effort that Democrats say can salvage Deeds’ struggling campaign.

In a conference call with reporters, Deeds strategists Mo Elleithee and Joe Abbey said the candidate’s voter-mobilization drive, including door-to-door visits and telephone banks, would contact more than 1 million Virginians by Election Day.

Discouraging polls notwithstanding—two more yesterday showed Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, trailing in double digits—“we are very much in this game,“ Elleithee said.

Also, the gubernatorial rivals released new television commercials—Deeds posting an advertisement spotlighting his big-city newspaper endorsements; McDonnell, a candidate-to-camera appeal for votes.

Romney headlined a fundraiser for Bolling last night at the home of developer Hank Wilton that was expected to draw about 250 people and raise more than $100,000.

Bolling backed Romney for the 2008 Republican nomination, while McDonnell supported Fred Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee.

McDonnell, a former state attorney general, dispatched Giuliani to appear with former Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore at events in Fredericksburg, Dumfries and Springfield. Kilgore, the defeated GOP candidate for governor in 2005, backed Giuliani for president last year.

Today and tomorrow, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is expected to campaign with the ticket, starting early this morning in Henrico.

Steele’s counterpart at the Democratic National Committee, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, heads to New Jersey today to appear on behalf of Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who is locked in a three-way race for a second term.

Kaine is scheduled to make three stops in the Garden State, including visits with labor and Hispanic voters, according to the New Jersey Democratic Party.

Virginia and New Jersey are the only states choosing governors this year. Because Obama carried both states in 2008, their elections could be viewed as a referendum on his policies.

Yesterday, a day after Obama appeared on his behalf, Deeds met with leaders of Charlottesville’s African-American community before discussing higher education with students and faculty from Northern Virginia Community College in Sterling.

He kicked off a canvass in Reston before hitting the Vienna Halloween parade with the rest of the Democratic ticket—lieutenant governor nominee Jody Wagner and attorney general candidate Stephen C. Shannon.

Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or .

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or .